Rock Canyon Takes DU Team Camp

DU Team Camp 2015 is in the books. The camp had to be moved from the Hamilton Gymnasium after portions of the Ritchie Center flooded after torrential rain and flash flooding hit Denver and the DU area last Wednesday. With the Hamilton floor warped, part of the camp was moved to Kent Denver.

The camp featured 24 varsity teams from classes 5A-2A as well as another 30 sub varsity teams.

Rock Canyon fought its way through a tough bracket to claim the championship with a 45-44 victory over ThunderRidge.

 Friday  Review

ThunderRidge and Legend got tested in the early morning games.  ThunderRidge right out of the gate with AWest. AWest is like a number of teams across the state: not overly big, play to their roles,  and can shoot the three pointer. Throw in talented 2016 guard Luke Neff and 2016 wing Will Wittman and they will be in most games they play.

Legend and got a good test from Doherty which had a shot a the end to pull it off in the final minute. The usual suspects played well for Legend in spurts. Danny Garrick was out of town for the game but played Saturday and Sunday. Doherty was missing Dalven Brushier for much of the tournament. Doherty’s style had essentially 5 guard attack will keep them in most games.

The highlights of the day came from Mead’s 2016  6’3 wing Walker Korell. Korell is a good outside shooter and is also a very good leaper.

Here is another highlight one from James Maher

AWest and Holy Family was a good one. Though teams that play together, trust the system and won’t back down from anyone.

Arapahoe wasn’t full strength for this team camp missing one or two players. That didn’t stop them though. Another well coached team that buys into their roles and plays hard. 2016 guard Joe Keeman led this bunch and got help from 2017 Kyle Lukasiewicz and played.

Rock Canyon played well on they first day. Payton Berman, Isaac Hirsch, Noah Beck and Colin Rardin are taking over.

Valor wasn’t full strength either missing 2016 guard Khameron Davis and a couple of others but they still played well. Dylan McCaffery and Jalen Sanders stood out.

Douglas County had some good moments many provided by 2017 guard Solomon Stark.

Pueblo Central went 2-0 powered by recent UNC commit Mike Ranson and Kobi Betts who was recently offered by the Air Force Academy.

Saturday Review

The day got started off with ThundeRidge being “upset” by Holy Family. Holy Families 2016 guard Chris Helbig was very good. Scoring in bunches and was solid on defense.

Ft. Collins then defeated Holy Family. 2017’s Iseri Palacio and forward Brian Read led the Lambkins in that one.

Valor matched up with Rock Canyon in an early afternoon game. Valor played well enough to beat Rock Canyon. Sanders  is really a difficult match up and along with McCaffery.  2018 Sam Masten played both Saturday and Sunday for Rock Canyon after being at an all-star event out of state on Friday.

Legend and Colorado Springs Christian was nice match up. When Legend is clicking it’s pretty impressive, when they are not, it leaves one scratching their heads as to why. CSCS is good, tough on defense and won’t quit. 6’8 Sam Howard and 6’5 guard Justin Engesser are hard to guard.

Sunday Review

Sunday belonged to Rock Canyon. But an upset was brewing at the same time Rock Canyon was leading Legend. Douglas County the eight seed lead much of the game over the #1 seed ThunderRidge behind the hot hand of junior guard Solomon Stark. Stark was excellent hitting three’s and mid range pull ups and had little problem getting to the basket. On defense Stark jumped passing lanes causing turnovers. ThunderRidge came back in the last few minutes of the game to win with a timely three pointer from Troy Brady and Corey Seng played well.

Arapahoe had appeared to have the game somewhat in hand with 5 seconds left after Kyle Lukasiewicz  hit two free throws  to give the Warriors a one point lead. On the inbounds play the Valor point guard shook free and drove the length of the floor and made a nice pass to Kayle Knuckles for the winning basket at the buzzer. 

Rock Canyon then faced Valor in the semi-finals.

Rock Canyon grabbed a 10 point lead in the later part of the first hand then in part to Masten. He scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half and dished off another 5 assists in the game.

Valor was never able to challenge the lead. With Rock Canyon getting offensive rebounds and limiting Valor to one shot attempts on offense.  Rocky Canyon 60  Valor 52

In the other semi final ThunderRidge exploited it size advantage and limited second chance points of Pueblo Central.

In the final ThunderRidge jumped out to a 11-4 lead with Corey Seng getting  ThunderRidge going.  Rock Canyon got going after a technical against one of the ThunderRidge players after he complained about a foul not being called. The Jaguars went on a 10 -3 run to  make the score at half time 17-16. Isaac Hirsch had four of the 10 points with Berman and Matsen, and Rardin each scoring as well.

In the second half Rock Canyon outscored ThunderRidge 10-3 to earn a 38-29  with five different Jaguars scoring. The final portion of the game ThunderRidge’s  Kaison Hammons and Seng combined for seven points to cut the score to 42-39. Rock Canyon answered with making three free throws to give the Jags enough of a cushion to offset the last second three pointer by Troy Brady to earn  the hard fought 45-44 win.

Rampart defeated Holy Family for the “B” Bracket and Doherty beat Mead in the “C” Bracket championship.